Yet another Hacker News

56 points YCmadeFlock 1 hour ago 15 comments

YC created the company and HN spread total disinformation and propaganda about it to us, blaming governments who actually banned it.

Some local governments have caved and are cutting deals with Flock now though, so it’s all bad.

YC and HN are at the center of it. It’s their company.

Schlagbohrer 1 hour ago | parent

Big if true

tobylane 47 minutes ago | parent

https://whoistheownerof.com/who-owns-flock-safety-complete-o...

Which year did they take part in HN?

gcheong 37 minutes ago | parent

Summer 2017: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/flock-safety

simonw 19 minutes ago | parent

Impressive SEO slop content farm they're running there.

giov4 27 minutes ago | parent

omg, feels like I should delete my HN account now.

nateb2022 24 minutes ago | parent

> HN spread total disinformation and propaganda about it to us, blaming governments who actually banned it

Source?

simonw 22 minutes ago | parent

"YC created X" is a bit of a misleading framing, as is "it's their company".

Flock were part of the YC Summer 2017 batch: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/flock-safety

"YC funded Flock" is a more accurate representation.

https://www.ycombinator.com/companies lists 6,202 funded companies now. I'm sure anyone on HN could find at least a few there that they fundamentally disagree with.

hungryhobbit 19 minutes ago | parent

You're missing the point. If YC only funded one baby murdering startup, would you really argue "they funded 6,201 non-baby murdering startups, stop making such a big deal out of it"?

The point is, even VC's should have some moral standards, and should not make pursuing profit more important than supporting mass surveillance (in violation of one of America's most important founding principles).

simonw 17 minutes ago | parent

How about if YC funded a startup in 2017 that offered solar powered cameras to help prevent package theft, and that startup then later evolved into a nation-wide surveillance network?

(I personally am not a flan of Flock, and I've been worrying about the privacy impact of automated license plate readers for years: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43073385#43073939 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45996860#45997278)

hungryhobbit 15 minutes ago | parent

I hear VC funders have these things called "boards" that allow them to shape the companies they invest in.

(EDIT: and even when they don't, they own a major % of the company, which absolutely gives them a say in its future.)

In your scenario, the funders would be directly responsible (along with other investors) for growing the company in that direction ... again, for their own personal profit.

simonw 14 minutes ago | parent

YC's seed round funding does not get them a seat on your board.

They also don't own anything close to a controlling stake.

jmathai 12 minutes ago | parent

YC funded Flock 10 years ago is even more accurate.

I get that Flock is now a pretty obnoxious company but it's hard to attribute that to YC.

bix6 20 minutes ago | parent

Why do you need a burner to post this?

I dislike flock too but bring receipts.

neoecos 20 minutes ago | parent

True, I was in that batch. But the company was more about neighbors associations

Muromec 19 minutes ago | parent

I like how flock exists, but idea of centralized and controlled system of physical and digital ids used in Europe is somehow controversial. Maybe this is what cyberpunk was all about?